It’s … The Encyclopedia of American loons! Our new and exciting series presenting a representative sample of American loons from A-Z.

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

#1889: Lane Lester

We’ll skip Lillie Leonardi – things like
this wouldn’t have merited an entry had she not written a book about it, pushed by
WND,
but even though she did I think we’re all best served by skipping her.

Lane Lester is a Professor of Biology at
Emmanuel Missionary College (or, as it is currently known, Andrew University),
Georgia – a small, extremist, Pentecostal college that offers non-accredited “education”
– and Regional Representative of the Institute for Creation Research.
Lester calls himself a “creationist geneticist”, though we have been unable to
locate any real research from his hand – instead, Lester appears to write
textbooks and articles for non-specialists in various creationist magazines,
the purpose of which is outreach, not research, insofar as the goal of
creationist “scientists” is, always, to broadcast their ideas and ensnare souls for Jesus, not to
actually try to scientifically test their ideas. Now Lester does, indeed, have
a real education. That doesn’t make him a scientist, of course, but it does
make him qualified to sign various creationist petitions,
such as the Discovery Institute’s petition A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism and the CMIlist of scientists alive today who accept the biblical account of creation.

Diagnosis: Scientists are people who do
science. Lester is not a scientist, and any attempt to make it look like he is
can be safely dismissed. Lunatic fundie, is what he is. Limited impact, but
students do attend his sorry excuse for an educational institution, and doing
so is probably not free.